E.On has worked with UK home builder Cala Homes to pilot a live, locally controlled, smart electricity management system that maximises the collective self-consumption of on-site renewable generation and to ensure unused energy generated for homes can be used elsewhere, reducing demand for power from the national grid.
E.On believes government plans to build 300,000 new homes a year into the mid-2020s, will require costly grid reinforcement if they are to have low carbon technologies such as solar panels, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers. Its dynamic solution was developed in consultation with housing developers and distribution network operators.
In the pilot project with Cala Homes, 77 new homes meeting new sustainable heating regulations are being built at Maidenhill, near Glasgow in East Renfrewshire. The project would otherwise have required £5.5 million of grid upgrades – almost £7,000 per home.
The solution can provide additional flexibility to balance beyond current and future limits as well as support the integration of new renewable solutions like rooftop PV systems, according to E.On.
Chris Lovatt, chief operating officer for energy infrastructure services at E.On said: “The UK will require hundreds of thousands of new low carbon homes to be built in the coming decades, connected to a smart energy network. Our solution will enable homes to be built to the highest sustainability standards – with heat pumps, solar panels and EV chargers – and connected to the grid where otherwise there could be insufficient network capacity. This col-laboration with Cala Homes is a step towards ensuring that new communities across the UK realise their low carbon energy potential.”
Stephen Kelso, group product design manager for Cala Homes, said: “Building more sustainable communities is a huge task for the house-building sector and a major focus for Cala. New, innovative technology is vital to this, but it’s not a case of just switching this on. The right infrastructure needs to be in place to support it. Enabling technology like this opens up a world of low carbon elements that we can install in homes and neighbourhoods to help work towards our net zero aspirations.
Mark Ritzmann, managing director of E.On Group Innovation, said: “Our project launch in the UK is the first step and there is huge economic potential for scaling. It is estimated that E.On´s dynamic solution will be required by a majority of the 2100 distribution system operators across Europe, with the biggest demand anticipated in eastern regions.”